The 'Uyoku Rōnin Dō'

Assessing the Lifestyles and Values of
Japan's Contemporary Right Wing Radical Activists

by

Daiki Shibuichi

Introduction

Military-style vans circulate through the streets of major Japanese
cities. Drivers in uniforms blare slogans via loudspeakers bolted to the
vans' roofs. These are the Japanese right-wingers, or uyoku radical
right-wing activists, who routinely demonstrate in front of foreign
embassies and government buildings, and who can also be seen protesting in
smaller towns. While the leftist Japan Teachers' Union, or Nikkyōso,
holds assemblies in local town halls, uyoku activists organize
demonstrations in front of city halls and shout slogans. Furthermore, some
of them may demand to meet with members of the mass media who make what the
uyoku deem to be 'inappropriate'
remarks, and they then insist on retractions and apologies for these
remarks. In December 2000, journalist and academic David McNeill experienced
this pressure from a group of uyoku activists after he mentioned the Nanking massacre on a Japanese radio program (McNeill 2001). He was shocked
to learn that the radio station gave in to the group's demand and asked him
to apologize on the next show. The station's director explained that radical
violence directed at the station was unlikely, but it could not be ruled
out. The director's concern was legitimate. There have in fact been sporadic
violent incidents attributed to the uyoku. In August 2006, senior
Liberal Democratic Party politician Katō Kōichi
was targeted by an uyoku radical. After confirming that the home of
Katō's parents was empty, the radical burnt it
down and used a sword to stab himself in the stomach at the scene (Noda
2007). The failed Molotov cocktail attack on the residence of Kobayashi Yōtarō,
president of Fuji Xerox, in January 2005, by an unidentified perpetrator was
followed by anonymous threats. This incident was also suspected to be the
work of the uyoku.

One might assume that these radical uyoku
activists are dangerous zealots driven purely by ideology. However,
cost-benefit analyses could also enter into their motives. Cases of criminal
fund-raising through pressure and tacit intimidation against corporations by
the radical uyoku or quasi-radical uyoku have been reported by
police and the mass media. In the abovementioned case of Kobayashi Yōtarō,
it is possible that some groups or individuals were secretly demanding that
Fuji Xerox offer material benefits in exchange for stopping further
harassment. Similarly, in the case of David McNeill, the radio station might
have been the true target. In fact, experts have confirmed the Japanese
uyoku right-wing radicals' overlapping membership with crime syndicates,
the yakuza or bōryokudan, as
well as with the sōkaiya or professional corporate extortionists.

Researchers Szymkowiak and Steinhoff (1995) try to
analyze these phenomena in their study. They first refer to incidents in
which readers can see complex and ill-defined relations among the radical
right, criminal groups, corporations and politicians. Then Szymkowiak and
Steinhoff ask, 'Is the term "radical right" merely a convenient cover for
what are actually organized crime operations? Or is there a true radical
right, deeply committed to the emperor and the protection of Japan's
national identity in the face of foreign pressure and corrupting leftist
influences?' To answer these questions, Szymkowiak and Steinhoff explain the
political and social structure of post-war Japan, where radical activists
mingled with underworld elements.[1] Szymkowiak and Steinhoff also depicted the
emergence in the 1970s of the 'new right' or shin-uyoku, which found
this overlap with underworld elements disgusting, causing them to split from
the existing radical right-wing camp. As of the mid-1990s when Szymkowiak
and Steinhoff's study was published, the majority of Japanese right-wing
radicals remained entangled with yakuza and sōkaiya, and the
Liberal Democratic Party and private corporations still had not completely
weaned themselves from suspect relationships.

Szymkowiak and Steinhoff's analytical framework
subscribes to a political process model of social movements, linking the
behavior of the radical right to historical and structural changes in
Japanese society, and particularly to changes in political opportunities.
This provides their study both with analytical clarity and the power to
convince. Having said this, adopting this model perhaps led Szymkowiak and
Steinhoff to focus less on examining the Japanese right-wing radicals per
se. Szymkowiak and Steinhoff explained that the radical right-wing has an
agenda that includes the following six aspects:

Protection of the emperor and restoration of his
pre-1945 status

Opposition to the post-war diplomatic framework, which
the radical right believes has relegated Japan to second or third-class
world citizenship

Anti-communism, socialism and unionism

Being anti-Russia/Soviet Union

Defending the Yasukuni Shrine

Denial of war responsibilities.

Szymkowiak and Steinhoff also repeatedly stress that the
core ideology of the Japanese right contains ideas of 'racial' purity and
exclusive national identity.

While many of the above notions do seem to matter to the
radicals, some of these ideas may be rather wide of the mark. For example,
it is not necessarily obvious how racism is linked to Japanese radical
right-wing phenomena. When Szymkowiak and Steinhoff try to explain why
harassment and physical attacks by Japanese right-wing radicals had not been
directed towards members of foreign workers and illegal immigrants,[2] they
attribute it to the tie between Japanese right-wing radicals and yakuza
gangs. Szymkowiak and Steinhoff explain that the international business of
today's yakuza  human trafficking and drug smuggling  as well as
the yakuza's multi-ethnic composition prevented radical right-wing
hate-crimes against social minorities in Japan.[3] While this theory is
intriguing, there remains an unanswered question. If the yakuza
include various ethnic groups as Szymkowiak and Steinhoff claim, by
extension this would mean that Japaneseright-wing radicals, who
overlap with yakuza, could also be multi-ethnic. And in fact, some
observers have noted resident Koreans among Japanese uyoku radical
right-wing activists. For example, a known media commentator Shin Sugok
states: ' those who appear to be right-wingers Many, in fact, are
Koreans' (Baylis 2001). As regards uyoku members' desire to protect
the emperor and to restore his pre-1945 status (1, above) and the denial of
Japanese war responsibilities (6, above), this report will show in later
sections that the radicals' views are nuanced.

In addition to the above, the radical right-wing issues
noted by Szymkowiak and Steinhoff do not necessarily help in explaining how
the uyoku choose their targets, not to mention why the uyoku
adopt certain tactics. For example, we can see that Katō
Kōichi was targeted because he aired opinions
critical of Japanese prime ministers visiting the Yasukuni Shrine. However,
other prominent LDP politicians, not to mention politicians in the
opposition camp, had criticized prime ministerial visits to the Shrine. Then
why was only Katō targeted? Furthermore, if the
radical uyoku perpetrator had intended to maximize the impact of his
act, it would have been more logical to attack LDP headquarters, its local
branches, or even Katō's office in Tokyo and
indiscriminately kill or injure staff members or Katō
himself. Instead, the activist attacked Katō in such a way as to injure only
the activist himself .

As for the pattern of uyoku behavior, Maruyama
(1964) posits that violent 'outlaws' in the political arena across the
world, uyoku in case of Japan, have common features. According to
Maruyama, political outlaws impulsively make value judgments in the ways
which ordinary people do only under the state of emergency. They daily
aspire for 'special missions' which accompany unusual adventures, and are
more interested in and excited at conflicts and confusions generating from
processes rather than the mission ends. Maruyama also states that such
outlaws despise earning their living through engaging in regular and stable
occupations, and this leads them to rely on criminal extortion.

Maruyama succinctly summarizes the uyoku's outlaw
mentality; but he does not discuss why uyoku are like that. Uyoku
behavior is even more puzzling  especially if they are mere outlaws as
Maruyama claims  when one considers the increase in political opportunities
for hate-crimes and high-intensity and indiscriminate attacks over the past
decade. Diplomatic conflicts and tensions between Japan and China have
escalated since the latter half of the 1990s, as has been the case with
Japan and Korea (the Koreas) since the beginning of the 21st Century.
Regrettably, antipathy to China and Korea and the Japanese elite who have
supported the Chinese and Korean positions has increased in some sectors of
Japanese society. Nowadays, jingoism and ethno-centrism are rampant in some
Japanese mass media outlets and especially on the internet. Given the
situation, uyoku radicals could have easily found opportunities and
pretexts. However, while the uyoku radicals have frequently protested
against and occasionally attacked the Chinese and South Korean embassies and
the de facto embassy of the North Korean state, the Chōsen Soren, no
injuries have been caused by the attacks. The escalation of conflicts has
seemingly not led the uyoku to perpetrate hate-crimes against
individual Chinese and Koreans, either. Lack of resources would not explain
why the tactics of the uyoku have been relatively mild; harassing or
attacking unprotected foreign nationals in town requires very few resources.
If the uyoku radicals wanted indiscriminately to hurt and kill
personnel in protected targets such as foreign embassies and headquarters or
branches of the LDP, they could mobilize themselves as armed yakuza
affiliates and effectively use fire-arms.

Recognizing that both Szymkowiak and Steinhoff's and
Maruyama's studies contain convincing insights and interesting observations,
this report suggests that there could still be a different way of
interpreting radical right-wing phenomena in Japan. This report tries to
consider uyokus' subjective reasoning that allows them to engage in
right-wing radicalism which does not include hate-crimes while not
necessarily rejecting criminal gains or connections. The key seems to be
their style and what they think about their identity. This report found that
many of the uyoku hew to a peculiar lifestyle, with self-expression
and activities based on certain aesthetics, and which creates a fraternity
of those who share these values. This report contends that the values can be
summed up by the phrase 'way of life as unemployed samurai-cum-
right-wingers' or uyoku rōnin dō(右翼浪人道). The author of this report heard
the phrase from a key subject, Mr. Ono Keizō, when
interviewing right-wing radicals between 2000 and 2002.

In the following sections this report will first
elaborate on the uyoku rōnin dō.
Second, it will introduce parts of the author's interviews and observations.[4]
The uyoku's unexpectedly diverse views will be reported and
relationship to society will be depicted. Some aspects of their community
will also be described. Finally, the current trend of radical uyoku
activism will be discussed.[5]

Limitations

The topic of criminal connection reveals that this report
has some serious selection-bias. Members of yakuza-related groups 
'incumbent' yakuza, so to speak  were not included. During
interviews with Mr. Ono, the author had occasion to interview two people
from such groups. However, they were not willing to talk about themselves.
Likewise, Mr. Ono was reluctant to introduce yakuza connections to
the author. He said that when he thought about which uyoku to
introduce, he chose mainly the 'new right-wing' activists because they are
generally serious regarding their ideology. Relying on Mr. Ono also meant
that this report was perforce influenced by his views. In addition, this
report was not able to cover the isolated and anonymous right-wingers and
terrorists lurking under cover of society. The notorious Sekihōtai,
which shot the Asahi Shimbun journalists in 1987, is a good example
of these undercover types.[6]

The Uyoku Rōnin Dō

In Japanese history, Rōnin were samurai or
bushi  mostly in the Tokugawa Shogunate period  who had abandoned
their feudal positions in the ie households of han
principalities or in the Shogunate proper. They could be regarded as
unemployed and thus were often impoverished. Some of them took advantage of
their freedom to engage in anti-regime political activities. Of course, such
rōnin do not survive in contemporary Japan. However, their image is
still reproduced endlessly in the popular culture media. The Tokugawa
Shogunate has been a favorite topic in Japanese kabuki plays,
fictional novels, movies, and recently in television dramas and manga
cartoons. Those stories have depicted rōnin as unemployed samurai
who were obliged to toil for their livelihood as part-time farmers and
artisans, teachers for neighborhood children, and even bodyguards for gang
bosses and mercenaries, while aspiring to attain an honorable goal or cause.
It is not going too far to say that popular stories have given almost
everyone in Japan an image of these rōnin.

As for the phrase uyoku rōnin dō,
this report considers that the word dō
is the key. It generally means 'the way' in which someone practices certain
skills and regulates one's conduct accordingly. This idea of 'path' or 'way'
is a well-known concept in East Asian cultures. By adding dō
onto the term rōnin (or uyoku rōnin), the complete phrase
takes on a positive connotation. People wishing to pass as true followers of
the uyoku rōnin dō are expected to
seriously embrace radical right-wing tenets and to educate themselves for
the cause. At the same time, they must endeavor to behave like unemployed
but dignified samurai, which likely leads them to refrain from
bullying the socially weak and from indiscriminate terrorism. However, being
a radical right-wing rōnin is tantamount both to being ignored by the
populace and monitored by the authorities. It therefore stands to reason
that they cannot hope to improve their living standards very much. Their
life is of necessity as frugal and simple as that of the rōnin
depicted in stories. They might therefore imagine that they are entitled to
practice criminal extortion in order to earn a living.

The next section looks into various cases of such
uyoku rōnin. While they engage in usual political activities such as
making public speeches, organizing demonstrations and protests, distributing
pamphlets, posting propaganda, discussing ideologies with comrades, and even
spending time in jail for radical violence, many of them have a penchant for
activities associable with rōnin life such as learning martial arts,
studying or teaching classical Japanese literature, voluntarily cleaning
Shinto shrines, and even engaging in farming.

Interviews

Mr. Ono Keizō

This section opens with the introduction of Mr. Ono Keizō,
who guided the author through the radical uyoku activist community.
He also used to be a sōkaiya. Silver-haired Mr. Ono had already
retired as a sōkaiya and was semi-retired as a radical uyoku
activist, but he is still acquainted with renowned uyoku radicals and
activists. He also heads a Non-Profit Organization for environmental
protection. In his view, the preservation of nature and forest is related to
the protection of humanity, the motherland and family harmony. As a
representative of this NPO, Mr. Ono lectures in local city halls, and
elementary and junior high schools. He is an incisive, cheerful and
outspoken person who was born soon after the Japanese war defeat in 1945.

Mr. Ono was born in Aomori Prefecture, which is one of
the poorest regions in Japan. After finishing his compulsory education, he
volunteered to serve in the Japan Air Self-Defense Force. Mr. Ono found
himself absorbed in training in jūkendō,
a Japanese style of bayonet fencing, in the Defense Force. While serving as
part of the ground staff at a radar facility, Mr. Ono trained hard in jūkendō,
and even competed once at the national level. After some years, he grew
tired of life in the Defense Force barracks. He left the Defense Force and
went to Tokyo, which was bustling in the unprecedented economic boom of the
late 1960s. In Tokyo, Mr. Ono's expertise in jūkendō
helped him earn a living. He became a bodyguard for the head of the
Nationalist Association or Kokusui-kai. The Kokusui-kai
originated as an uyoku group in the pre-war period, but it later
turned into a major yakuza group controlling the Ginza district of
Tokyo. Being a member of a yakuza group ruling the underworld there
must have been quite a coup for a young man who had come from the
countryside with nothing but his skill in fighting. Nonetheless, Mr. Ono
never joined the yakuza. 'I don't like their way of earning money.
They squeeze it out of miserable drug addicts and prostitutes,' he said. 'Besides, their lives have no rhyme or reason. They are also stupid and
low-class.' Mr. Ono, who is apparently somewhat of a maverick, seems
particularly to dislike the quasi-family system and yakuza customs.
Just like various Mafia groups in other countries, yakuza members are
tightly knit in quasi-parent and child relationships.

Mr. Ono was instead gradually drawn to radical uyoku
activists. He listened to speeches made by the late Akao Bin, the famous
old leader of Dai Nippon Aikoku-tō (The
Great Japan Patriot Party 大日本愛国党) and
once a lower house politician during the pre-war period. During the post-war
period, Akao Bin preferred to make speeches at Sukiyabashi corner, which is
one of the central points in Ginza. Some of Akao Bin's words impressed Mr.
Ono. He did not join Akao Bin's party, but instead went to drink coffee with Akao Bin in a coffee shop in Ginza.
'I happened to know where Akao Bin drank
coffee. He didn't refuse to speak to a young guy like me. Akao Bin loved
coffee and was very particular about it,' Mr. Ono said. Mr. Ono soon quit
his job as a bodyguard for a yakuza boss. During those years in the
Ginza underworld, he thought he had learned something about corporations and
management, so he began a sōkaiya business.[7]

As a radical uyoku activist, Mr. Ono was known
among other radicals as a specialist in anti-Soviet activities. He
participated in the uyoku activists' parades and demonstrations in
front of the Soviet embassy in Mamiana, Tokyo. In his efforts to harass the
Soviet politicians who visited Tokyo, Mr. Ono sneaked into their hotels and
tried to meet them. He was never successful, as the security police always
found him, arrested and detained him. Mr. Ono is also known among other
radical right-wing activists as a generous donor of funds. He uses the money
he earned from the sōkaiya business to support radical uyoku
activists who are serious ideologues but have no money. For example, Mr.
Suzuki Nobuyuki (鈴木信行), a
younger generation uyoku activist, once worked as Mr. Ono's
assistant. His case will be introduced next. Mr. Suzuki paid homage to Mr.
Ono as his senior. In fact, the group Mr. Suzuki headed, Gendai
Ishin-sha (the Society for Contemporary Restoration
現代維新社), was founded by Mr. Ono.

Speaking of money, Mr. Ono seems to be neither interested
in amassing wealth nor in living a luxurious life. When the author met Mr.
Ono, he was driving a small ramshackle Nissan van in which he carried
farming equipment for his NPO activities, and he lived in an ordinary house
measuring perhaps 90 square meters built on 130 square meters of land owned
by his parents-in-law in an outlying suburb. However, one of the other
interviewees said that when Mr. Ono's sōkaiya business was thriving,
he drove a big Mercedes and had a large office-cum-residence in a
condominium located in the up-market Akasaka district of central Tokyo.
Nevertheless, Mr. Ono did not seem to regret those days. Mr. Ono gradually
retreated from the sōkaiya business as
regulations against extortionists were tightened step by step. He closed his
coffee shop in Higashi Ginza and he was not very keen on engaging in
anti-Russia movements after the collapse of the Soviet Union. Perhaps he
thought Russia lacked the substance of a powerful enemy worth challenging.
By the late 1990s, he had moved from Tokyo to the suburban city that had
been home to his wife, and he began to focus seriously on his NPO
activities.

Mr. Suzuki Nobuyuki

This report next looks into the case of Mr. Suzuki
Nobuyuki, whom Mr. Ono introduced to the author. Although Mr. Suzuki neither
fell into the category of the radicals, nor has he engaged in underworld
sōkaiya or yakuza businesses, his case is significant and worth
examining. He can be regarded as one of the young generation leaders of
Japanese uyoku activists. As head of the secretariat
(jimu kyokuchō)
of the only current Japanese right-wing political party, Ishin Seitō
Shimpu (The New Wind Restoration Party
維新政党・新風), Mr. Suzuki has a wide
network among both radical and legitimate uyoku activists. This
party, for which Mr. Suzuki works as a volunteer, garnered approximately
57,000 votes in the 2001 upper-house election, approximately 128,000 votes
in the 2004 upper-house election, and approximately 170,000 votes in the
2007 upper-house election.[8] Mr. Suzuki also heads the right-wing Yasukuni
Jinja Seisō Hōshi
Yūshi no Kai (Association to Voluntarily
Clean the Precinct of the Yasukuni Shrine
靖国神社清掃奉仕有志の会). The participants
congregate once every few months in the precincts of the Yasukuni Shrine to
clean the place. Afterwards, the members pay worship fees and worship in the
main building of the shrine. They then eat lunch at a coffee shop in the
precinct and adjourn. These activities seem to be part of their shūgyō
mental and physical training to become respectable uyoku rōnin.[9] Mr.
Suzuki, who was born in the mid-1960s, speaks quietly and always seems calm.
His mild seriousness and sincerity have helped make him a leader. He
explained the reason he became a right-wing activist: 'One of my seniors in
elementary school days joined the radical uyoku. The senior let me
join their gaisen demonstrations in the black van gaisensha.
That was the beginning. In those days, I was just a kid, and had no sense of
ideology or politics. It was when I was detained for juvenile delinquency
that I got seriously interested in uyoku. I read books there. We had
nothing else to do, you know. A policeman there lent me a book by Nomura Shūsuke
(野村秋介, who represented the
'new
right-wing'). I was impressed with the book. So, after my release, I began
to meet radical uyoku people.'

To make a living, Mr. Suzuki runs a small construction
company in the Katsushika District of Tokyo where small businesses are
concentrated. Some of his employees are young people with arrest records
like the sharp-tempered but friendly Mr. Watanabe Garyū
(渡辺臥竜).
Mr. Watanabe spent five years in jail for yakuza crimes. In jail he
became interested in the uyoku through a book by well-known lawyer
Endō Makoto who defends uyoku
activists. Mr. Watanabe quit the yakuza after his release. He takes
care of his bed-ridden mother and earns his living as a construction worker
under Mr. Suzuki. He wishes to become a respectable uyoku by studying
ideology and participating in various activities. When Mr. Watanabe has
time, he accompanies Mr. Suzuki to uyoku meetings and ceremonies. As
for Mr. Suzuki, it seems that the responsibility of running a company and
securing jobs for employees like Mr. Watanabe has influenced him. Unlike
many other radical and legitimate uyoku activists, Mr. Suzuki has a
tendency to construe Japan's status and its national cause in terms of
economic factors. The continuing recession of the day had severely affected
his business. It made him feel even more frustrated with the existing regime
 represented by Premier Koizumi Jun'ichiro, who drastically cut public
spending for construction  and turned him toward legitimate political
activities. However, his senior, the ex-radical Mr. Ono, was not necessarily
in favor of having Mr. Suzuki focus on legitimate political activities.

'I assume Southeast Asian countries expect Japan to play
a positive role in Asia,' Mr. Suzuki once said. 'I understand that Japan and
Thailand were the only non-white nations to have remained independent before
World War II, and Japan acted as a counterweight to the West,' he
elaborated. 'Furthermore, Japan swiftly recovered from the devastation of
its defeat. I think it is natural that other Asian countries, as well as
Middle Eastern and African countries, respect us for that achievement. They
might imagine that since Japan has become affluent, prosperity is also
within their grasp. Right now (This interview took place in the summer of
2001.), the Japanese economy is not in good shape. If the economy continues
to slide, it would indicate that people of color cannot emulate white people
after all. So, I hope the Japanese economy recovers. Then, we can show the
might of Japan without using violence or military power,' he stated.

The New Wind Restoration Party has its headquarters in
Kyoto, a representative office in Tokyo and 29 branches nationwide. Since
the party's founding in 1995 by Uotani Tetsuō (魚谷哲央),
its members have participated in upper house elections four times: in 1998,
2001, 2004 and 2007. Mr. Suzuki implied that the party was funded by
donations from several businessmen running successful small-to-medium sized
businesses. The party's policy platform is roughly as follows: 'carrying out
"independent diplomacy" by amending the Japan-US security treaty and by
pursuing a hard-line policy against China, the two Koreas and Russia while
supporting Taiwanese independence; reflecting conservative and patriotic
values in education; restoring order in Japanese society by reviving
traditional family relationships and stressing the agriculture-first
principle; boosting the economy; opposing pork-barrel politics; and amending
the 1946 constitution.' We can note that the party's domestic policy
platform per se did not include xenophobic factors.[10] This platform does not
seem very different from that of the ruling LDP, except for its diplomatic
policies. Therefore, it could be said that a jingoistic foreign policy is
its main feature. This emphasis might allow the party to garner votes from
far-right constituents who have not been satisfied with the LDP and the
ruling coalition's foreign policy.

Mr. Fukuda Kunihiro

Mr. Fukuda Kunihiro
(福田邦宏), who heads Bokyō
Shimbunsha (The Anti Communist Press
防共新聞社), is close to Mr. Suzuki
Nobuyuki. His Anti-Communist Press regularly makes speeches in front of
Tokyo's Shimbashi and Shibuya Stations using their loudspeaker-equipped
black van; it can be regarded as one of the typical uyoku groups
encountered in the street. The author once observed their speech in front of
Shimbashi Station. People in Tokyo are busy and none of the passers-by
bothered to stop and listen. However, several men wearing business suits
took notes nearby. When the author told Mr. Fukuda in the gaisensha
van that he had keen listeners, Mr. Fukuda retorted that they were officers
from the security police monitoring them. The Anti-Communist Press is also
close to the late Akao Bin's well-known Great Japan Patriot Party; we would
sometimes find their black vans protesting together in front of foreign
embassies.

A peculiar feature of Mr. Fukuda's case is that, in
contrast with other uyoku activists, he hails from a wealthy family.
His Anti-Communist Press was established in 1948 by Mr. Fukuda's
grandfather, Fukuda Soken, a known politician who had founded Nihon Rōdō-tō
(the Japanese Labor Party 日本労働党) in
1914 while advancing the universal suffrage movement. Mr. Fukuda's uncle,
Fukuda Susumu, born in 1928, was also a renowned uyoku radical and
very successful sōkaiya (Hori 1991). Mr. Fukuda's family wealth is
evident from the address of the offices of his Anti-Communist Press: they
occupy a house in Tokyo's Den'en Chōfu District, which is home to some of
Tokyo's wealthiest residents. Because Mr. Fukuda comes from a wealthy family
and has a famous grandfather and uncle, people might imagine him to be
genteel and sophisticated. However, Mr. Fukuda, then in his mid-30s, is
stout and taller than average; he looks tough and is obviously a very
confident person. He is also eloquent.

Mr. Fukuda's aide, Mr. Kondō
Katsuhiro (近藤勝博), probably in his
late 20s, looks even tougher. He is a tall and muscular man with no
superfluous flesh. Clad in military-style clothes and GI shoes and sporting
a GI haircut, Mr. Kondō looks like a soldier
from the Special Forces or the paratroopers. He wears brown-tinted glasses
that cover a cloudy eye that is likely the result of an injury. Mr. Kondō
fits the stereotypical image of a rough-and-tumble radical activist who
blares slogans from black vans and skirmishes with the riot police.

Mr. Fukuda has a complex and interesting opinion on the
Japanese national identity. 'The Japanese people forgot the ideal of a
national identity  kokutai  after the war defeat and foreign
occupation,' Mr. Fukuda said indignantly during an interview. 'But, I
believe it still lives within the flesh and blood of the Japanese people.
Our task is to awaken it.' However, he continued, 'Having said that, this
idea of nationhood is really complicated. You can't really be sure whether
there were foreigners among your ancestors or not, can you? So, in my
definition, those who follow and believe in the imperial court are
Japanese,' he explained. 'And of course, what I follow and believe in is the
Japanese imperial court. Although they lived in Japan, the ancient Emishi
and Kumaso tribes were regarded as alien because they did not follow
the imperial court. Those who follow and believe in the emperor are
Japanese, regardless of the color of their eyes or skin. Blue eyes or black
skin is no problem.' Mr. Suzuki, who was accompanied Mr. Fukuda during the
interview, added 'You know, there are ancient historical records showing
that many people migrated to Japan from Korea and China. The aristocratic Ōuchi-family is a good example of a Japanese
family with foreign ancestry. But they all became Japanese when they
accepted the culture and the language.' Thus, we find Mr. Fukuda taking a
constructivist approach to define the Japanese national identity, even
though he also believes in the importance of blood, Mr. Suzuki can not be
considered an essentialist either.

In any case, Mr. Fukuda's and Mr. Suzuki's views on
Japanese national identity and, by extension, on foreigners, can be regarded
as moderate. However, Mr. Fukuda's aide, Mr. Kondō,
seems to have a different view. In a relaxed get-together of the
Anti-Communist Press and some other groups in a pub, he expressed feelings
of disgust for Chinese immigrant workers and resident Koreans. Ethnic hatred
does exist among uyoku radicals. Having said this, it is unlikely
that Mr. Kondō, who is proud of being an
uyoku of the Anti-Communist Press, harasses or bullies minority
individuals. Mr. Kondō heads the gaisen
speech team of the Anti-Communist Press. 'My team has a total of about 15 or
16 members. We usually have meetings and go to gaisen every Monday,'
he explained. 'I can't say that people in town are eager to listen to us,
but there are a few serious listeners. I know this because we sometimes get
feedback over the telephone. As for my group, most of us earn our own living
as cooks, carpenters, laborers or truck drivers and one of us runs a curry
restaurant,' he elaborated. 'Employers kick us out once they knew we are
uyoku. I was fired twice because of it. People regard uyoku as
rogues (gorotsuki),'
he lamented. However, according to Mr. Kondō,
all his comrades were volunteers. 'Kondō-kun
is a volunteer, too.' said Mr. Fukuda and continued, 'To be an uyoku,
you need strong convictions and extensive ideological knowledge. Those who
volunteered just because they were influenced by the cartoons of Kobayashi
Yoshinori have not usually lasted very long.'[11]

'Why did you volunteer?' the author asked Mr. Kondō.

'I was born in Nagano prefecture and grew up there. Well
it's a long story. Anyhow, I had been interested in the uyoku since I
was a junior high-school student. When I turned twenty, I compared pamphlets
and newsletters from many groups and chose the Anti-Communist Press,' he
said. When asked about his views on terrorism, Mr. Kondō answered, 'Uyoku attacks are different from those of the amoral
radicals of the left. We don't bomb indiscriminately. Uyoku target
key individuals, for example, a politician who makes many people suffer.'

Mr. Morita Tadaaki

Mr. Ono also introduced the author to Mr. Morita Tadaaki
(森田忠明), who participated in the
attack against the headquarters of the Keidanren  the largest
Japanese business association  in 1977
(経団連襲撃事件). Armed with shotguns and swords, Mr. Morita, along with the
renowned 'new right-wing' figure Nomura Shūsuke
and two ex-members of Mishima Yukio's Tate no kai, occupied the
Keidanren chairman's office, taking four hostages and demanding that
Japanese business circles re-think their profit-oriented behavior. He was
jailed for five years for this act (Hori 1991). Mr. Morita, who was born in
1949, studied at Kokushikan University, and had once been in the Maritime
Self-Defense Forces (He also studied jūkendō
in the Defense Forces.). He had apprenticed in the prestigious radical
uyoku group from the pre-war Daitō
Juku (Great Eastern Academy 大東塾).
He had also studied Mandarin Chinese at the Tōa
Language Institute and visited China during the Cultural Revolution. In
addition, Mr. Morita is a registered Shinto priest. 'I got the license by
attending a one-year course at Kokugakuin University,' he explained. At the
time of the interview, Mr. Morita ran a small institute called Morita
Juku (The Morita Academy: presently
森田塾北杜書院・練成道場) in the countryside of Yamanashi Prefecture to train
uyoku youths. At the academy, Mr. Morita lectured to students on the
history of uyoku and on Japan's literary classics. He also gave jūkendō
lessons.

Mr. Morita is a robust, short-haired person of medium
height with tanned skin and a mustache, and he looks rather like a skilled
trainer at a military camp. His attitude is open and candid. In an
interview, Mr. Morita explained that his academy's facilities had recently
been donated by a local entrepreneur who runs a mid-sized electric company.
'But he does not donate funds to run my academy. I have to earn them myself.
It's not easy,' he said. In addition to using tuition fees, he maintains his
academy and earns his living by editing newsletters for several uyoku
groups, and by functioning as a part-time priest at a local Shinto shrine.
Mr. Morita explained he received 7,000 yen for a 3-day course from students
for tuition. He said he trained some young people from a yakuza-related
group a couple of days ago, and some university students would come in the
following week. Mr. Morita was thinking about advertising his academy in
order to improve his financial situation. He was researching how much it
would cost to place an ad in right-leaning magazines like Seiron and
Sapio.

At Morita Academy, Mr. Morita showed the author a
video-clip in which he prayed as a Shinto priest near a refugee camp on the
Thailand-Myanmar border. He explained that a commemoration ceremony had been
held for three Japanese university students who had died as military
volunteers in the Karen National Liberation Army. 'Their families were
distraught, but I understand the motives of those youths,' Mr. Morita said.
'They craved adventure.' In fact, Mr. Morita, too, had craved adventure in
Southeast Asia when he was young. 'That's why I learned Mandarin Chinese and
often traveled to Southeast Asia. When I was young, I dreamt I could find
some friends among ethnic Chinese merchants there, and with their help, set
up a secret training camp for revolutionary guerrillas,' he explained.

When asked why he became an uyoku, Mr. Morita said
'I come from the mountains northwest of Kyoto. As a schoolboy, I had an
antipathy to the emperor because he lived a privileged life in the very
heart of Tokyo. But, my elder brother told me that some 1000 years ago our
family members were blood relatives of the imperial family. I was amazed.
This totally changed my view of the imperial court.' Mr. Morita continued, 'I had another motive. Around that time, I became an ardent fan of General Nogi
(of the Russo-Japanese War).
I was fascinated by his biography.' During the interview, a neighborhood
farmer visited Mr. Morita with a bundle of vegetables in his hand. He joined
the conversation and bragged about how he resisted the power of the
state-apparatus by refusing to pay a fine for a traffic offense.

In the evening, Mr. Morita invited Mr. Ono and the author
to drink beer in the kitchen. Mr. Morita elaborated on his views. 'Cultural
relativism is important. It depends on how you define culture, but we
Japanese do have our own understanding of history. Chinese and Korean
versions of nationalism attack Japanese nationalism and its understanding of
history. It is really hard to get along with them. Perhaps they have the
right to pressure Japan to achieve their diplomatic aims, so I don't blame
them. But what I cannot tolerate is that the Japanese government is
knuckling under to them. In the 1980s, Nakasone Yasuhiro gave in to their
pressure. He made me cry. As long as I live, Nakasone is my target. Although
I don't have any power, he will pay for that.' Mr. Morita also expressed
antipathy to certain mass media outlets. He referred to Kume Hiroshi and
Chikushi Tetsuya and said, 'It is easy to quiet those leftist television
commentators. I just visit their homes. I distribute pamphlets around their
houses to scare their families. I throw smoke bombs into their gardens. Yes,
I have a right to do that. TV commentators have a responsibility to the
public since they can say what they want on TV. It's the same with those
politicians. I also distribute pamphlets around their homes. When you
distribute pamphlets, the quality of the writing is important. If my
pamphlets were low-brow, they would not be taken seriously. But terrorism is
different from distributing pamphlets. It's not so easy.'

While drinking beer, Mr. Ono and Mr. Morita argued about
the Japanese invasion of the Asian continent. The argument grew heated and
left the author perplexed. Initially, Mr. Ono insisted that Japan had freed
the Southeast Asian peoples from Western colonialism. Mr. Morita rebutted
this and said that Japan's war was solely for its own designs, and as a
result of the Japanese invasion, the peoples of Southeast Asia began to
think seriously about modern nationhood and independence. However, their
positions soon flipped, and Mr. Ono began to say that contemporary Japanese
should think about the feelings of the peoples of countries which had been
trodden on by the Japanese military. Mr. Morita refuted this and said that
the places occupied by the Japanese army were colonies of the West and there
were no countries or nations. He said that the phrase 'Japanese invasions of
Asian countries' was therefore not accurate. However, in a probable effort
to cool down, they soon changed topics and began to examine the vegetables
harvested from Mr. Morita's garden.

Mr. Kamiya Jirō

Mr. Ono took the author to the head-office of the Great
Eastern Academy . Mr. Morita of the Morita Academy arranged a meeting for us
with one of the leaders. The Great Eastern Academy was established in 1939.
Its founder, Kageyama Masaharu was one of the principal conspirators in that
well-known right-wing coup, the Shimpeitai Incident
(神兵隊事件) of 1933. The academy later
openly criticized General Tōjō
and was suppressed by the militarist regime. When Japan was defeated in
World War II, the heightened sense of national emergency caused fourteen of
its members to commit collective ceremonial suicide (Hori 1991). The academy
was known for its strong inclination towards Shinto, Japanese literary
classics and the emperor. Speaking of Japanese literary classics, it has a
branch named Fuji Kadōkai
(The Fuji Association of the Way of Poems
不二歌道会), which is a nation-wide network for local poetry lovers. The
academy's head-office is housed in a small, old four-storey building located
in a back street in the Kita-Aoyama district of Tokyo. It also has a farm in Oume City. The representative of the Fuji Association for the Way of Poems,
Mr. Kamiya Jirō (神屋二郎), received us
in a small lounge. He looked nearly 80 years old and was dressed like a
farmer in the field. Interestingly, Mr. Ono seemed tense in Mr. Kamiya's
presence. He politely addressed Mr. Kamiya as sensei instead of
Kamiya-san. During the interview, Mr. Ono did not smoke or even lean back in
his chair. This indicated the prestige that the Great Eastern Academy
enjoyed among uyoku radicals.

Mr. Kamiya expressed his mistrust of politicians such as
Nakasone Yasuhiro. He explained the dilemma of needing to be close to the
powerful to make changes. 'But it's all over with us if we cooperate with
the regime. We can't do that. We have to make changes from outside. Well, I
wish we really had the influence to do that,' Mr. Kamiya smiled.
Nevertheless, Mr. Kamiya implied that the Great Eastern Academy was close to
the Nippon Kaigi, which is probably the most powerful rightist
pressure group in Japan. It consists of people from the Shinto community as
well as a number of conservative politicians, young rightist intellectuals
and even some members of business circles. Mr. Kamiya also said that he was
personally close to secretary general of Eirei ni Kotaeru Kai (The
Association to Commemorate the Spirits of Fallen Heroes
英霊にこたえる会), which is a major group of
retired military men that pressures politicians to visit the Yasukuni
Shrine. Incidentally, Mr. Kamiya was an officer candidate during the final
stage of the Pacific War. Despite this, he expressed criticism of Nihon
Izoku Kai (The Japan Association of Bereaved Families
日本遺族会). This group invites LDP
politicians to be chairpersons and is thus prone to compromise in the
Yasukuni Shrine dispute.

Mr. Ono stretched his back and lit a cigar when we
stepped out of the building after the interview. 'He is one of the
forerunners who have truly abided by the uyoku rōnin dō,'
Mr. Ono said. 'You can see he lives a very humble lifestyle. The Great
Eastern Academy has been self-sufficient, which means they fear nothing.
They don't have to compromise,' he added. A week later, the author visited
Mr. Kamiya again to listen to his views on Japanese literary classics. Mr.
Kamiya gave the author a short lecture on literary classics and the 'way' of
the Japanese as he saw it. He spoke of 18th Century scholar Motoori
Norinaga and his Karagokoro and Yamatogokoro concepts, and
explained that the hero in the 8th Century myths Yamato Takeru should
be the role model for the Japanese. Mr. Kamiya also said something a bit
surprising. 'I must admit that the American spirit is formidable,' he said.
'President George Bush visited the Meiji Jingū
Shrine during his state visit the other day despite the recent controversy
over the Yasukuni Shrine. People like him who respect others' beliefs are
spiritually strong,' Mr. Kamiya explained.

Mr. Ninagawa Masahiro

Mr. Ono took the author to the office-cum-residence of
Mr. Ninagawa Masahiro (蜷川正大), who
has led the Daihi-kai(大悲会)
group since the death of founder Nomura Shūsuke,
and who is also the representative of the Nijūisseiki-shoin (二十一世紀書院) publishing company. Mr.
Ninagawa is known for attacking the Sumitomo Real Estate Company in 1987
(住友不動産会長宅人質事件). Armed with swords,
Mr. Ninagawa and two younger comrades intruded into the residence of the
president of the company and took a hostage while demanding that the company
stop profiteering in the then booming real estate business. He was jailed
for three years for this act (Hori 1991). Mr. Ninagawa is a big jolly man
and warmly welcomed his old drinking buddy Mr. Ono to his small office built
over the garage of his house in a suburb of Yokohama City. The office is
filled with books. Mr. Ono told the author that anyone who studied
contemporary uyoku would need to research the late Nomura Shūsuke,
and that Mr. Ninagawa was his closest disciple.

'Nomura never killed anyone, and he was also careful to
avoid injuring anyone.' Mr. Ninagawa began to explain. 'That is the main
difference with leftist extremists. Nomura had a certain style and I think
he had a plan. First he burnt down the house of powerful politician Kōno
Ichiro, then he attacked the headquarters of Japan's business elite (the
Keidanren incident), and finally he shocked the mass media by committing
suicide in front of the president of the Asahi Shimbun. As you know,
Nomura targeted the Asahi Shimbun because it made fun of him for
running for election. But I don't think Nomura seriously intended to become
a politician. He was essentially a fighter. He just wanted to try to make a
splash in the politics of the mid-1990s by running for national office.'

When asked about his own views on politics, Mr. Ninagawa
answered, 'For example, there are uyoku who support the movement of
the New Wind Restoration Party. I respect their efforts, but I distance
myself from their movement. Politics needs a lot of money. It needs
compromises, too. It's beyond my capability. Besides, in my view, the
post-war uyoku movement is not a mass movement. Its roots are in the
anti-regime movements of pre-war uyoku trailblazers. There are people
who argue that the uyoku are on the rise, just because Kobayashi
Yoshinori's books are bestsellers. But what is really on the rise now is conservativism. Conservatives think and do things in the framework of
liberal democracy. In that sense they are fundamentally different from us
radicals.' Nevertheless, Mr. Ninagawa's views on the emperor are moderate.
'Well, with regard to the emperor, there are many different opinions among
uyoku. To tell you the truth, I think the status of the present
imperial family is the best, although I know there are uyoku who want
Japan to return to the Meiji-era and the imperial system of the day. This is
a difficult issue. The official position of all uyoku should be that
our image of Japan depends on the preservation of the Kokutai
national identity that is centered on the emperor. That's uyoku by
definition. If some uyoku diverge from this position, they have
become something else.'

Mr. Ninagawa explained his motives for joining the
uyoku. 'I think there was nothing special about me. I was a bookish kid
who liked reading history books and liked American pop music. But the 1970 Mishima incident changed me. Anyway, in those days youth often got involved
in politics, either left or right. I had an uyoku acquaintance and he
introduced me to the activists. I did gaisen speeches, distributed
pamphlets and posted ads. I didn't get involved in yakuza-related
groups. Instead, I got acquainted with Mr. Suzuki Kunio
(鈴木邦男) of
the Issui-kai. Then I got to know Nomura.' When asked why yakuza
often become uyoku, he explained, 'The uyoku movement is not
really about ideology. It's passion and emotion
(jōnen).
You see, samurai do not do things logically. They live for the sake
of loyalty and how to die beautifully. Patriotism is also passion and
emotion. That is why leftists think we are fools.' When asked about the
Sumitomo incident, he explained, 'One of Nomura's friends became a victim of
Sumitomo's 'thuggish land-clearing (jiage)'.
At that time, the mass media were still not very keen on reporting the
phenomenon. That was the real reason.' Mr. Ninagawa also explained his
publishing business. One of his company's main projects is the publication
of a comprehensive uyoku directory (Ninagawa No Date). Coincidentally, the author
happened to have a photocopy. Mr. Ninagawa updates the contents every four
years. It is purchased not only by other uyoku but also by corporate
personnel in charge of legal affairs and crisis management. Mr. Ninagawa's
company also publishes books related to the uyoku. He said, 'Now, I
focus on this business. I'm getting a bit too old to continue radical
activism. I just turned 50. I know my publications offend many people, but
diverse opinions are necessary to a healthy society.'

Mr. Kimura Mitsuhiro

Mr. Kimura Mitsuhiro
(木村三浩), also called Kimura Sankō, is
the chairman of two new right-wing organizations: one is the well-known
Issui-kai (The Association of First Wednesday
一水会), and the other is its more
radical affiliate Tōitsu Sensen Giyūgun
(United Front Volunteers 統一戦線義勇軍).
These new right-wing groups began as university student groups. The
United Front Volunteers, which was established in September 1981 by some
20 younger-generation activists including Mr. Kimura, used to be very
radical. During the 1980s, itvandalized the Soviet embassy in Tokyo
and threw Molotov cocktails at the British embassy in Tokyo, the American
consulate in Kobe, an American Navy residence in Yokohama, the Soviet
consulate in Osaka and an office of the Soviet Tass News Agency in Tokyo.[12]
Mr. Kimura, born in 1956, somewhat resembles Mr. Morita in height, girth,
and profile, except that Mr. Kimura has the appearance and manner of an
urbanite. He conveys the impression of enough shrewdness to lead well-known
organizations.

Owing to the ability of Issui-kai members to
logically and systematically explain their ideology, the mass media,
including television, often interview Mr. Kimura as the representative of
all radicals. Since the mid-1990s, Mr. Kimura, as well as Issui-kai
founder Mr. Suzuki Kunio, have often been invited as panelists on Asahi
Television's popular overnight debate program Asa made nama-terebi
(Live TV Till the Morning). Popular weekly magazines such as Shūkan
Asahi, Shūkan Shincho, Shūkan Bunshun, Sapio,
Dacapo, Shūkan Spa and Shūkan Playboy interview Mr. Kimura
for comments and opinions. Even the left-leaning Asahi Shimbun and
its affiliated monthly Ronza do so. For seven years, Mr. Suzuki was a
columnist for Tsukuru, a well-known periodical critical of the mass
media. He is now a columnist for the Japanese version of the Korean internet
news medium OhMyNews. He also has published several books on the
radical uyoku. Issui-kai leaders can thus be regarded as mass
media celebrities. Their relatively moderate positions also explain their
popularity among the mass media.

When the author interviewed Mr. Kimura in November 2000,
he explained certain aspects of uyoku tactics in politics. Mr. Kimura
said, 'Contemporary uyoku activists do not resort to assassination.
They look for scandals and then employ gaisensha vans. The uyoku
are westernized. We follow the example of the Americans who raked
ex-President Clinton over the coals after his scandal broke. You see, Chief
Cabinet Secretary Nakagawa Hidenao was obliged to resign owing to, among
other things, the uyoku's having made a fuss about his mistress.'[13] As
for foreign policy, Mr. Kimura and his Issui-kai have maintained a
position that clearly differs from that of most other rightists. He said,
'Our Issui-kai admitted that the Sino-Japanese War was an overt
invasion (shinryaku)
by the Japanese Empire. Other uyoku groups have regarded the war as
one of a series of actions taken by the Japanese Empire to defend itself
from Western aggression. They therefore vociferously opposed the planned
'1995 Diet Resolution', in which Japanese lawmakers were to collectively
apologize and express regret for Japan's invasions in Asia. 'The
Issui-kai kept silent. I think 10,000 to 20,000 Chinese were in fact
killed in Nanking for no reason by the Japanese Army. The confusion in
Nanking at that time is obvious from various sources. We, the new
right-wing, are not against China,' proclaimed Mr. Kimura. 'Our enemies are
America's hegemonic ambitions and the Japanese regime that supports America.
Recent diplomatic troubles between Japan and China, and Japan and North
Korea are, in my view, provoked by America.' But he also added, 'Having said
this, I don't like the Chinese Communist Party's propaganda-first
principle.'

When the author visited Issui-kai's headquarters
for a second interview, Mr. Kimura further elaborated on his views on
international relations. 'I am a Japanese minzoku-ha (contemporary
nationalist) as you see, but I also respect the Chinese minzoku-ha. I
am prepared to talk to them. Please write something in English so that the
Chinese understand there are many kinds of Japanese minzoku-ha. I
don't like that the Chinese government does not distinguish among the
various Japanese minzoku-ha and blames all of them.' 'However, we
must be alert to hegemonic ambitions. The Chinese government's actions in
Tibet and Xinjiang have made foreign countries suspicious,' he also added. 'Issui-kai
used to have contacts with Taiwan's pro-independence factions, but we no
longer do. They are far too pro-American. Of course, they have no choice
except to be pro-American, since the Japanese government does not support
them. We regret that it has not done so. America advocates democracy, but
what are they doing in Iraq and in Kosovo?' He pointed to a picture of
Saddam Hussein on the wall alongside a poster of thin, pale children. Mr.
Kimura explained that these were Iraqi children suffering under the UN
embargo. He said he had obtained the picture and poster when he made one of
his twenty visits to Iraq. It is possible that Mr. Kimura was interested in
the Iraqi Ba'th Party's secular Arab nationalism. It may also be that he
regarded Saddam Hussein as a symbol of anti-Americanism. 'I do respect the
spirit of the Mayflower and of Jefferson, but contemporary Americans have
really degenerated,' Mr. Kimura said.

Issui-kai's headquarters are located on the second
floor of a small but modern building near Takadanobaba Station in Tokyo.
Issui-kai's white gaisensha van squeezes into a small parking
place in front of the building. An office of this size in Tokyo would cost
around 300,000 Japanese yen per month. Mr. Kimura said that Issui-kai
had core membership of about 500. If each of them paid 1,000 yen per month
for membership fees, it would add up to 500,000 yen. The budget of
Issui-kai would be limited. As a political rōnin, Mr. Kimura
inhabits an old and small wooden apartment building and lives a very simple
life, according to his acquaintance Mr. Mori Yōhei, currently an assistant
professor at Seijo University in Tokyo. Mr. Mori had introduced the author
to Mr. Kimura. Incidentally, Mr. Mori is known as the author of the
best-selling Tennō-ke no saifu (Wallet of the Imperial Household).
Nonetheless, Mr. Mori said he had never seen any protests or received any
threats from the uyoku, including Mr. Kimura, for revealing the
private budget of the Japanese imperial family in his volume.[14]

Conclusion: The Uyoku and Japanese Society

Can these contemporary uyoku be a serious threat
to society? The uyoku movement in the 1930s tapped the grievances of
impoverished farmers and linked with revolting military officers who were
indignant with the state of politics and society at the time. However, their
violent reform movements were quashed by the mainstream military, which
eventually took over the entire Japanese empire. Ideologically, the military
selectively adopted some tenets of uyoku and revolting officers, and
rōnin aesthetics were among the factors neglected. It could be said
that Japanese militarism, which brought horrendous disaster to the Asia
Pacific region, was influenced by these complex processes.

In contrast, contemporary uyoku find it very
difficult to connect with other elements of society and to wield influence.
State-uyoku relations are quite hostile. As seen in the Bōkyō
shimbun sha example, both the police and the Public Security
Investigation Agency monitor the uyoku. Mr. Kondō
and Mr. Suzuki said that the agents not only monitor their protests and
demonstrations, but also periodically visit uyoku activists' homes to
'intimidate' them. Miyazaki (2007), who interviewed 15 known uyoku
radicals including Mr. Ninagawa Masahiro and Mr. Kimura Mitsuhiro, also
noted the recent hostility of the Japanese state towards uyoku. The
relationship between politics and the uyoku seems to be at an impasse
and there are few conduits for uyoku radical voices in national
politics. The only national-level politician whom the uyoku radicals
can openly approach is said to be Nishimura Shingo, the maverick right-wing
politician of the Democratic Party of Japan. However, to the uyoku's
chagrin, Nishimura is currently involved in a criminal suit (Nihon keizai
shimbun 2007) and is unlikely to survive the next election. Other
conservative politicians have avoided meeting with the uyoku ,
especially since the aforementioned scandal of then Chief Cabinet Secretary
Nakagawa Hidenao and a yakuza-linked uyoku group, the Nihon
Seinensha. This tendency might explain why Mr. Suzuki and his comrades
are advancing a movement to consolidate the position of the legitimate
right-wing party in national politics.

Business circle-uyoku relations have also become
difficult, as corporations have made serious efforts to eliminate
fund-raising by the sōkaiya and uyoku since the 1990s.[15] Mr. Ono
admitted that the days when the uyoku-cum-sōkaiya could expect
to gain easy money from corporations are over. Relations between the
populace and the uyoku seem much the same. This report found no
examples of the so-called 'rise of nationalistic sentiment in society',
which might ease the lives and activities of the uyoku.

Thus, general circumstances seem to be deteriorating for
the uyoku, as can be seen in the fact that some of the interviewees
have segued into more moderate or legitimate activities. Nonetheless, this
report found that the uyoku remain a strong organization despite
adversity. Uyoku periodically see each other in a casual way. They
also see friends and comrades at ceremonies like various commemorations for
the late Mishima Yukio, and after the ceremonies they go out drinking. It is
quite possible that the uyoku in the street reconfirm their identity
on these occasions, as do the values related to 'uyoku rōnin dō'.

Speaking of the uyoku community, the author noted
that yakuza-related uyoku participate in Mr. Suzuki's
voluntary association to clean the precinct of the Yasukuni Shrine. They
also attend Mr. Morita's academy as students. Mr. Ono does have such friends
and acquaintances. While the interviewees in this report seem to be clearly
aware of who among the uyoku are yakuza, and who are not, they
do not seem to mind it very much. Mr. Ono once said that after all, the
uyoku need yakuza participation to enlarge their camp and to
'seem fearsome'. He said that the yakuza's capability to mobilize
armed members could greatly enhance the image of the entire uyoku
camp. Meanwhile, Mr. Suzuki noted that the yakuza-related members
tend to hold ceremonies and assemblies separately from other uyoku
because their backgrounds are different. However, such differences do not
seem to hinder yakuza-related activists and other uyoku from
appearing together in major protests and demonstrations.

Notes

[1] Their depiction can be roughly summarized as follows: after
Japan's defeat in World War II, the occupation authority weakened Japanese
state institutions such as the police force as part of the process of
demilitarization. Militant labor movements and large-scale leftist
demonstrations provoked domestic disturbances in the late 1950s to early
1960s causing trouble for the Japanese regime, which lacked any effective
means of control. This encouraged some politicians in the ruling Liberal
Democratic Party to contemplate organizing a 'private army' consisting of
radical right-wing activists and yakuza gangsters.

[2] While one can observe incessant radical right-wing protests
and harassment of the Tokyo headquarters and local representatives of the
General Association of (North) Korean Residents in Japan or the
Chōsen Soren, generally speaking, it is difficult to find cases
in which existing radical right-wing groups attacked or harassed ordinary
members of ethnic or religious minorities.

[3] Szymkowiak and Steinhoff also stated that the Japanese
economy had maintained enough capacity to absorb immigrants without
provoking grievances among Japanese workers. However, the number of
immigrants has been growing steadily. According to the Immigration Bureau of
Japan (2007), the number of registered foreign long-term visitors as of the
end of 2005 was about 2,001,000, a 48 percent increase from 1995, when
Szymkowiak and Steinhoff's work was published.

[4] Due to the roles and positions occupied by the interviewees,
it has not been possible to maintain respondent anonymity. All interviews
with research respondents were tape recorded with the consent of
interviewees and with the understanding that they may be named in later
publications in English.

[5] This report does not condone the unlawful actions of
political extremists in Japan. Neither does it support the uyokus'
political views. It is also noted that the author is solely responsible for
the content of this report.

[6] No evidence indicating the involvement of existing uyoku
individuals or groups has been found, although the perpetrators' communiqu้s
copied uyoku rhetoric. The interviewees in this report did not
understand Sekihōtai
terrorism, even if they did not sympathize with the Asahi Shimbun.

[7] In fact, the Ginza district is closely connected to the
Japanese business community. Many corporate executives and successful
businessmen as well as politicians and artists drink at bars in Ginza. They
also use those bars for discussing business. Some of them take bar-hostesses
as girlfriends and mistresses. Mr. Ono opened a small coffee shop in Higashi
Ginza, borrowing space in a building, all the while making his first visits
to corporations as a young
sōkaiya. 'I opened the coffee shop not to make it
my life-long business on the side, but to collect information,' he said. 'I
kept late hours. Then, the bar hostesses would drop by my coffee shop on
their way home. You know, they love to gossip. That is how I got so much
information for blackmailing corporations.'

[8] However, these numbers were still much too small to enable
the party to obtain a seat in the Diet. In the upper house election of 2007,
for example, the Women's Party was not able to secure a seat even though it
tallied 673,000 votes. The Social Democratic Party, which won 2,637,000
votes, was able to claim only two seats.

[9] Mr. Suzuki explained that the Yasukuni Shrine authority had
initially been unwilling to allow an unknown volunteer group headed by a
stranger to clean the precinct. He had to plead with shrine priests many
times to persuade them. Participants are usually radical and legitimate
uyoku activists as well as those with links to the yakuza.
However, any interested person can join in the activities of this
association. The author once met a group of several undergraduate students
who were interested in patriotism and who participated to explore the
atmosphere of the association.

[10] The only mention of the issue was in 'We propose to step up
measures against illegal foreign workers.' Having said this, their policy
may change in future. Mr. Suzuki (2007) in his blog recently expressed
concern and antipathy against illegal activities by resident (north) Koreans
and immigrant Chinese workers.

[11] This does not mean that uyoku radicals have negative
views on Kobayashi Yoshinori and his manga. The uyoku whom the
author interviewed, including Mr. Suzuki and Mr. Fukuda, are generally in
favor of the works by Kobayashi, saying that if his works help disseminate
uyoku ideas, they should be welcomed.

[12] One of the members was killed in an internal conflict in
September of 1982. Three executives of the United Front Volunteers were
arrested and jailed for murder and one spent twelve years behind bars. Mr.
Kimura was also involved in the incident. He was arrested on a charge of
illegal abandonment of a corpse. Mr. Kimura was arrested six times for his
activities as a member of the United Front Volunteers (Hori 1991).

[13] Nakagawa was said to have met a Nihon Seinensha
member, as well as other yakuza-related right-wing activists, to ask
them to stop gaisen from denouncing the scandal of his mistress.

[14] Any society has its own taboos and sensitive topics. In
Japan, the imperial family, war responsibilities and some social minorities
can be regarded as examples of these topics. However, there are certainly
ways to get around the taboo and to express opinions on such sensitive
topics in the mass media. Mr. Mori seemed to have done that by properly
using the polite form and wording when referring to the emperor.

[15] According to Mr. Sakiyama (not his true name), a retired
legal section director of a renowned manufacturing corporation, until the
1982 commercial law amendment which clearly banned corporations from buying
off the sōkaiya
(and uyoku), the police had been reluctant to intervene in clashes
between corporations and extortionists. This was especially true of the
security police, which had long focused on checking and suppressing
communist influence, and who regarded the uyoku as essentially being
on their side because the right-wing attacked the communists. However, Mr.
Sakiyama said that the situation is quite different today. He explained that
police attitudes began to change around 1990. Enforcement of the 1992
Anti-Organized Crime Groups Act further encouraged the police to swiftly
intervene and help the corporations. Incidentally, Mr. Sakiyama was the
person who introduced Mr. Ono, his long rival and friend, to the author.

About the author

Daiki Shibuichi has a PhD in political science from
the National University of Singapore. The author expresses his gratitude to
Lee Lai To, Leszek Buszynski, Iris Mielonen and Wang Jingru for
encouragements and general comments.

Copyright:
Daiki Shibuichi
This page was first created on 28 November 2007.

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